The Real You
by Raberba girl
Summary: Kazuki finally discovers what his best friend is REALLY like. Kazuki/Azuma/Kahoko; no slash.


The Real You

(rough draft)

A La Corda d'Oro fanfic by Raberba girl

Summary: Kazuki finally discovers what his best friend is REALLY like. Kazuki/Azuma/Kahoko; no slash.

o.o.o

She would be on the roof... Heh, she was always on the roof.

I pushed open the door and was opening my mouth to call out to her when I heard another voice out there - a man's voice.

"Mmm...such a sweet, delicate scent...it doesn't suit you, Kahoko."

_'Kahoko?!'_ Who in the world did she know well enough to call her that...?

"You're the one who gave it to me."

"My taste is impeccable, so it seems it is you who simply doesn't have the character to pull it off successfully. How sad~"

"Well, I wouldn't have worn it, but I don't have anything else I could wear to a performance like this..."

"My, my. You can't even afford decent perfume, Kahoko?"

"It's rude to flaunt your wealth at people below your station. And I thought we'd talked about the personal space thing, Yunoki-sempai."

_'Yuno-?!'_ But it was true. I hadn't recognized him at first, staring uncomprehendingly at the long dark hair of the man who stood behind my Kaho-chan with his arms wrapped around her, but it was him. His voice was so different, his words cruel, but now I could tell without a doubt that it was him. What was...going on...? Why was he holding her like that?! Or talking to her like that...?

Then I realized she was struggling a little.

"Oh, don't worry, you're not bothering me."

"That's not what I _meant_."

"The moon is so beautiful tonight," he murmured, as if he had no idea he was making her so uncomfortable. Maybe he didn't...any second now, he would back off with a sweeping, graceful apology-

"I would enjoy it more without you breathing down my neck, Sempai."

"Why? Are you uncomfortable?" His _voice_. He knew exactly what he was doing. I couldn't believe it - he _looked_ like the Yunoki I knew, but it was like he was a completely different person.

"I don't like where your hands are..."

That's it - Yunoki or no, I was going to punch him. I marched forward to do it, and they both turned around.

Kaho-chan looked surprised, then relieved. I _thought_ I saw a look of horror cross Yunoki's face for a second, but then I realized I'd imagined it - now he was _smirking_ at me. He knew, I'd TOLD him how I felt about Kaho-chan, and here he was holding her like that and speaking to her like that-

I hit him.

"Hihara-sempai!" Kaho-chan gasped.

"Maah, Hihara, what was that for?" Yunoki said, holding a hand dramatically to his face as if he had no idea why he'd deserved that.

"What were you doing to Kaho-chan?!"

"Hmm? Why should you care?"

Wha-?! "You _know_ why!"

"Eh?" Kaho-chan said in confusion.

Yunoki smirked at me again. I wanted to grab his shoulders and shake him and _make_ him start acting normal, like he was supposed to. "You look so upset, Kazuki, as if Kahoko could care about you when she already has my brilliance to captivate her."

Kaho-chan said something, but I didn't hear her, I was staring at Yunoki in disbelief. He'd called me Kazuki... I'd thought that maybe one day we'd be calling each other by our given names, but...not like this. Not after he'd just said something like that to me, after he'd been hurting Kaho-chan. "Y-Yunoki...what happened to you?"

"Hm? I'm just the way I've always been, Kazuki."

"No! This is- I don't even know you! The Yunoki I know would never-! Would never...!"

"Then I suppose you never knew the real Yunoki Azuma," he said curtly, and walked away.

I stood there, staring where he had been, realizing that I was shaking a little. What...what had just...? Was I dreaming? "Kaho-chan, is this a nightmare?"

"It's all right, Hihara-sempai," she said softly, taking my hand. "It's...it's true, he's always been like this...but-"

"He's treated you like that before?!" Of course he had. She hadn't been shocked at all, had struggled against him in this tired way as if it was something she was used to. "How long has he been doing this to you?!"

"Hihara-sempai, please, calm down. He's only teasing...I've started trying not to overreact so much, and he gets tired of it more quickly-"

"How long?" I demanded.

"Um...after the second selection, I think..."

"That long?!" So long, and I'd never even suspected... "Has he ever hurt you, Kaho-chan?"

"Hiha-"

"_Really_ hurt you? Please, Kaho-chan."

"No, Hihara-sempai," she said quietly, meeting my eyes. "He...he'll call me names and tease me, and is quite rude, but he's never hurt me. Really, I'm all right...I've gotten used to him. How he really is."

_How he really is._ We'd known each other for three years, he was my best friend... All of it was a lie? He'd been fooling me this whole time?

"Hihara-sempai - um, Tsuchiura-kun and the others were talking about going out somewhere together...do you want to try to catch them before they leave?"

"I..." She just wanted to go on, as if nothing had changed? Then I realized...for her, it _hadn't_ changed. All this time. She'd known, all this time. I was the one too stupid to see the truth. "I'm sorry, Kaho-chan, I think I'm...tired...I need to go home."

She looked at me for a minute, and then...she hugged me. Just put her arms lightly around me and squeezed a little before quickly pulling away, but...she... And I was too miserable to enjoy it much. "I didn't think I could hate anyone before, but...now I do," I said.

"Oh, Hihara-sempai, please don't say that. Really, he's...well, he's not perfect, but he does have some moments, you know? I'm starting to think that 'dark Yunoki-sempai' isn't really the real one, either... It's like the real one is somewhere in there, caught between the two, and it's so hard to catch a glimpse of him. But he's there. Please don't give up on him, Hihara-sempai - he's your best friend."

"Was," I said bitterly. "He _was_ my best friend. Now, he's-" _'My rival.'_ Rival? But I guess he was, if he was trying to steal Kaho-chan away from me like that... I swallowed.

She laid a hand gently on my arm. "Come on. Let's go downstairs, okay?"

"Okay..."

o.o.o.o.o

Mom thought I was sick, the way I came home and went straight to bed without even stopping to get a snack. Then I couldn't sleep all night; even when I got up to listen to music and watch some TV, I was still tossing and turning afterward, wondering if I really was a stupid person, how many other people had known, how many more of my friends weren't who they said they were...

Then I finally _did_ fall asleep, and couldn't get up when my alarm went off.

I was tired and bleary-eyed at school the next morning, and people kept commenting on how I was less energetic than usual. _'Well, of course I am. People usually get less energetic when they find out that everything they've known is a lie...'_ Okay, not _everything_. Just one thing, maybe. But that's how it felt like.

"Yunoki-sama~!"

The familiar screams made me jump, as usual, but then I froze. Usually I'd be whirling around to shout Hello to my best friend, but now...now that things were so different...

"Good morning, ladies."

"Yunoki-sama~~!"

"You outshine the sun today, as usual, Yunoki-sama!"

The usual light chuckle. "Really, you're too kind."

I couldn't believe it. Yunoki? I turned around, and there he was, with the same princely smile I'd known, and the same polite, gentle voice. "Yunoki...?" It was a dream. That was it. It had all been some weird nightmare.

"Ah, Hihara - you look well this morning." He tilted his head and smiled as if nothing was wrong, but...were his eyes really a little harder than usual, or was I just imagining it...?

"You and Hihara-sempai are such good friends, Yunoki-sama~!"

Man, how does he put up with that kind of stuff all the time? I smiled. "It's good to have you back, Yunoki!"

"Eh? But I haven't gone anywhere, Hihara," he said. A little too sweetly. It _had_ just been a nightmare, right...?

I tried to keep an eye on him, but it was hard because we didn't share all our classes, and in the ones we did share, the teachers kept picking on me for 'daydreaming.' He _seemed_ normal enough, I guess, and the way he answered questions when they called on him was just as usual: always having the right answer and always super-polite, with that same modest smile whenever they gushed about him. It _was_ Yunoki - it really was. I was happy again, sure that last night had been just some weird fluke.

Then we had lunch together outside, me and Yunoki and Kaho-chan. And I found out that it wasn't a fluke at all.

"Ugh." As soon as we sat down, Yunoki loosened his tie with this quick, rough gesture and leaned his head back against the wall, closing his eyes. I had never seen him look irritated before, or make such an unrefined movement before. "That's _one_ good thing about being forced to marry, at least: I won't have to put up with those pests for too long."

I stared at him in shock, but Kaho-chan just said with a strained smile, "You're so harsh, Yunoki-sempai."

"Yunoki!" I gasped. "Th-That's your fan club you're talking about! Those girls..."

He opened his eyes again and turned that irritated look on me. "What about them? Do you perhaps want them for your own, Kazuki? You'd be welcome to them, except that you'd never have the grace or charm to hold their interest. Those girls will never see you the way they see me."

I stared at him. "Yu...no...ki..."

"I wonder what it's like," he mused, starting to eat as if we were just talking about something like the weather, "always being the 'cute' one, never being taken seriously, always having girls see you as a nice-guy goofball rather than a real man. I would think it'd be quite tiresome, but...heh, it's possible you're too stupid to even notice, or care."

I felt like he'd stabbed me. I- I didn't even- I _did_ get tired of being 'the cute one.' I did get a little jealous sometimes, always overshadowed by Yunoki, people seeming to forget about me as soon as they saw him. I tried not to let it bother me much, because my real friends really did like me for who I was, I _mattered_ to everyone who was important.

Except...to Kaho-chan, I didn't matter enough. Sometimes I thought she'd never see me as a man worthy of her love, and...it was like...he knew how much it would hurt me, throwing that in my face. No pity, no dancing delicately around the issue, he might as well have kicked me down into the dirt and laughed at me. This guy was not my friend Yunoki. This guy was evil. This guy-

"Yunoki-sempai," Kaho-chan was saying reproachfully, "I never thought you'd be frightened of _anything_, much less Hihara-sempai..."

"I beg your pardon?" he said, scathingly condescending. His face was like a completely different person's. Not my friend Yunoki. Not my friend.

"Can't you please at least give him a chance? Maybe he _won't_ run away, but you won't know if you don't try. I don't think he'll run."

"Hmph. You seem to be under the mistaken impression that you know how either of us feels."

"Then finish it, at least! I - I dare you!"

"Pardon?" he said, looking amused again. I had no idea what Kaho-chan was talking about, it was like the two of them were speaking in some kind of code. "'I dare you'? We aren't elementary school children, Kahoko."

"Finish it. Tell Hihara-sempai _why_ girls will never see him the way they see you."

"Kaho-chan," I said in a low voice, "I think I need to leave-"

"Tell him why you're so jealous of him," she demanded.

I blinked. Yunoki? Jealous of _me_?

Yunoki was glaring at her a little now. "I, jealous of some hyperactive boy who barely scraped into Music Studies by the edge of his teeth? Don't make me laugh. I don't need anyone to like me for who I am, I don't need to effortlessly attract friends like flies, and I don't need any reason to glory in life, since I find it so dull and useless. I have intelligence and talent and _perfection_ - why would I need anything else?" He put another bite of food into his mouth, not looking at either of us anymore.

I was still staring at him. "...What?" Kaho-chan was smiling. "Yunoki...what do you mean about life being useless? What do you-?" _To like me for who I am._ "Ah- Ahhhh!"

They both looked at me, Kaho-chan in surprise, Yunoki in annoyance. Or at least, what looked like annoyance. His shoulders were kind of hunched in this tense way.

"'Dark Yunoki' is the secret you, isn't it! Kaho-chan's used to you... Kaho-chan, no one else knows but you?!"

She smiled at me a little. "Just me. And now you. And I'm sorry, Hihara-sempai, but I can't actually like Yunoki-sempai. I've tried, but...he makes it so difficult...sometimes I can _almost_ like him again. Almost. And then he's so horrible and I get so _frustrated_."

I looked back at Yunoki in disbelief at my realization, and noticed...that...he wasn't meeting my eyes. He had this haughty look on his face, like he thought the whole conversation was stupid, but he couldn't meet my eyes. And my heart went out to him. "Poor Yunoki," I heard myself saying.

"Pardon?" he said coldly.

I wanted to hug him, so I did.

"Ugh, Hihara..."

My family name again. Distancing me, because I was making him uncomfortable. "Azuma," I said warmly, and he actually flinched, then glanced at me in this wary way. "Azumaaaa, you're so lonely, aren't you."

"Get off. I'm trying to eat. You're so annoying."

"Maybe no one else likes you when you're the real you, but _I_ do, Yuno- I mean, Azuma." Kaho-chan was smiling. "Maybe you _are_ a horrible person - I'm sorry I didn't notice before, Azuma!"

"When was the last time you showered?" he grumbled, taking another bite of food as if this was a normal conversation. Did I really-? Whatever; it didn't matter how I smelled, he was only saying it to try to push me away again. This time, I wasn't going to let him.

I hugged him tighter. "But now I _do_ know who you are - and I'm still your friend, okay?"

He glared.

"So cheer up! We're best friends forever!"

"Don't yell in my ear."

"Three cheers for friendship! On three, Kaho-chan! One, two-!" All she did on 'three' was laugh, but I cheered loud enough to make up for it, and Yunoki finally jerked away and called me an idiot, but I noticed that he was smiling a little when he started eating again.

After lunch, we had to go back to class, where I watched in awe as Yunoki went back to his usual kind, princely self as soon as there were other people around. No, not his 'self' - back to the fake Yunoki. Me and Kaho-chan were the only ones who knew it was a lie - we were the only ones who knew his real 'self.' "Ah! Azu- I mean, Yunoki!"

He glanced over at me with a polite, inquiring smile. _So weird_. "What is it, Hihara?"

"You _are_ my rival, aren't you!"

"Pardon?" he said, a little startled, and the girls nearby suddenly started looking super-interested.

I laughed and waved my hand. "Ah, never mind, never mind." We could talk about it later. "Hey, Yunoki, did you finish the homework for next class?" Of course he had.

"Why, yes. Did you have a question, Hihara?"

Soooo polite. His face made me laugh now. "Heh heh, I dunno. You're so funny."

As we were walking across the courtyard together after school, I said in a low voice, so that no one else could hear, "Oi, Azuma. Jerkface. Drive me home, 'kay?" I felt a little breathless, being so rude to him, and was relieved and kind of delighted when he picked up on the new game. This rude thing could be kind of fun.

"Honestly, Kazuki. 'Jerkface'? That's the best you can come up with? What are you, nine years old?"

"I'm just soooo stupid that I can't think of any brilliant insults like you can, Azuma." The name already felt comfortable. Like we really had become closer, even though it was because of such a weird and unexpected thing.

"Obviously. Well, it's a pain, but I _suppose_ I can humor you on your selfish little whim."

"Yay!" I watched his eyes, just to make sure, and was relieved when he really didn't seem to be annoyed. In fact, he looked almost...happy, behind the 'dark Azuma' smirk.

In the car when we were in private, and Azuma had made sure the driver couldn't hear us, I said, "Man, Azuma, I'm kind of impressed...you can, like, switch it on and off. Like there's a button or something."

"Hmm?"

"It's like, Bing!" I poked him in the ribs. "Yunoki-sama. 'Helloooo, ladies, aren't I just the most handsome and nice guy ever?' Then, Bing!" I poked him again, and he edged away in annoyance. "Dark Azuma. 'Rawr, look at jerkface me, I just love to make your life miserable.'"

"Does any of this rambling have a point?"

"Heh, it's just funny, that's all. Oh! I wanted to talk to you about something..."

"Hino was never able to blackmail me, and you won't be able to, either."

"Huh? No! That wasn't- Hey, Azuma."

"What, Kazuki?" he said, pretending to be annoyed again even though I thought he was probably just curious.

"Hey - we really are rivals now, huh."

"As if you could ever have a chance of besting me at anything."

"Azumaaaa! I'm talking about Kaho-chan."

He raised an eyebrow.

"She knows about dark Azuma, too..." I gulped. "She was the first one. Before me."

"So _terribly_ sorry that you feel left out, Kazuki."

"So I think we're the only people you really like, right?"

"Heh, what gave you that idea? Don't you think it makes more sense that I care so little about you two that I don't even bother to playact for you?"

"Whatever. Hey, Azuma...if you really like Kaho-chan, I just wanted you to know that I'm not gonna give her up, okay?"

He smirked at me.

"I mean it, Azuma! Me and you are still best friends forever, but that's not gonna stop me from doing my best to win Kaho-chan's heart, so you'd better watch out!"

"I can't say that I feel in the least intimidated by the competition..."

"Heh heh, admit it, you're shaking in your boots."

"In any case, it's a moot issue, since I _don't_ actually like Hino, and you're welcome to try for her."

"Yeah, play it cool~"

He frowned. "You really _are_ getting annoying, Kazuki..."

"I'm gonna win!"

"Kazuki-"

I poked him in the ribs again. "I'm gonna beat you, beat you, beat you~" Poke, poke, poke.

"Hihara, _stop_! For heaven's sake, you really _are_ a child."

"Hey - I got an idea. Let's play some stupid kids' game when we get home!"

"Pardon?"

"Fake Yunoki would never dare look silly or get his clothes dirty, but I bet the real Azuma would play with me!"

"You really are delusional..."

"If you don't play Tag with me, then I'll know you're just a _chicken_."

"Kazuki-"

"Chicken, chicken, chicken~"

"Kazuki!"

"Heh heh, so even you can lose your cool."

"You are _infuriating_."

"Yay! Point for Hihara!"

"What, now you're making a game out of which of us can annoy each other the most?"

"I'm winning~"

"Don't underestimate me..."

o.o.o

Author's Notes: Ta-daaa, my first and likely only _La Corda d'Oro_ fanfic (not counting some Kingdom Hearts crossovers I have in mind). I wanted to hurry and scribble something down while I was still in the mood to write a non-KH story. I'm sorry if this fic has a lot of mistakes or weaknesses; I don't know La Corda like the back of my hand the way I do Kingdom Hearts.

Kazuki & Azuma are my two favorite characters in the series, and the trio relationship between them and Kahoko is my favorite 'pairing,' it's fascinating. I've always thought it was a shame that Kazuki never finds out about his best friend's dark side in the anime. I wanted to write something to remedy that~ ^^


End file.
